


The Canterlot Verses

by Fallowsthorn



Category: fallout: equestria - Fandom
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Oral History, Rhyming, quatrain poetry, recursive fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-04 13:57:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4140321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallowsthorn/pseuds/Fallowsthorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Canterlot Verses<br/>excerpted from The History of the Great War<br/>(as told by Xenith of Glyphmark)<br/>document property of the Junction Town Library, NCR</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Canterlot Verses

**Author's Note:**

> Librarian's note: Zebras are known to have a rich oral history, and it was my privilege to be able to transcribe a segment of it covering the Great War. I am incredibly grateful to Xenith for allowing me to make her ancestors' words available to the public, and hope that reading or hearing these words might make ponies more sympathetic to the zebras around them. We all live in the same Republic.

Listen close, my little dears,  
I’ve a story to tell, so lend me your ears.  
It starts where all stories must: the beginning  
At a time when all we cared for was winning....

A long time ago, in a land far away,  
Two kind ponies ruled, o’er night and o’er day  
Above all things else, they were fair, just, and wise  
‘Til the stars brought about the young one’s demise.

Her heart had turned bitter, she ranted and railed  
Her sister begged mercy, but to no avail:  
The stars tore at her soul, strong as ten thousand thorns  
There was no saving her; Nightmare Moon had been born.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust  
Canterlot will lie in ruin and rust.

The sun and the moon raged through the long night,  
All Equestria felt their wrath and their might,  
The stars were defeated, their rage burned like a brand;  
locked ten centuries away, they waited and planned.

In the thousandth year, on the longest day,  
Four mad stars aided in her escape.  
‘Twas only the courage of six little ponies  
That kept the eternal night from growing.

And so the Nightmare was welcomed with open arms,  
A treacherous demon who smiled and charmed;  
The ponies were happy, but naught had they learned!  
The past was forgotten; Nightmare Moon had returned.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust  
But in Canterlot lies only ruin and rust.

Forty years thence, embroiled in war,  
The sun princess said she could sanction no more  
She left throne and power to young sister dear,  
Never knowing that she’d brought about what she feared.

With nothing to lose, and our spirits to save,  
We bound blood to fire, brought children their graves.  
We were not proud that we did what we must,  
that ash turned to ash, and dust to dust.

And the worst of the fire was sick creeping pink  
The poison of rot and decay and of stink:  
The balefire fell and did not abate;  
Nightmare Moon raised her shields, but far, far too late.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust  
But in Canterlot lies pink poison and rust.

The pink seeped in buildings and liquified bones,  
‘twas meant to be vanquished, not sleep in the loam;  
So the stories are true, then, of Equestria’s rot  
But no balefire fell on Old Canterlot.

And then all was quiet for two hundred years,  
The Wasteland grew thick, the survivors grew fierce  
We too were lost, when we put out the sun;  
The Great War was over, and nobody won.

The rest might have hope, if you cut out the rot,  
But there’s only the poison for damned Canterlot.


End file.
